Stranger
by rawhsucker
Summary: Just another survivor on the island... Come see what makes mine different than others. Chapter Three now up. Please R&R.
1. airport troubles

Hullo and welcome.

Yep, it's just practically another survivor in LOST fanfic. Hopefully I'll have some tweaking and make this one interesting to catch your attention over all the others! key word is hopefully

**Disclaimer:** I don't own LOST. If I did... er... Well, Jack would crack and prescribe everyone to do the conga. Yeah. I do own my character though... But you don't want her. Or any other.

* * *

**Stranger**

"Oh god I feel so sick…" The woman groaned, bashing her head against the toilet. "This is your fault, Lori. I told you not to allow me to drink!"

"But Mum", the girl stood in the corner of the cubicle, trying to make herself as small as possible. "I tried too, and you got upset and angry remember…"

"I did not! How dare you lie to your own Mother?" She got drunkenly to her feet, and grabbed the girl by the neck, slamming her face into the wall. A loud crack echoed throughout the airport bathroom. Blood streamed down the wall as Cara let go of Lori's neck. "Oh god, Lori! Why do you have to be so bloody clumsy? I can't take you anywhere…" She struggled with the lock on the door and eventually clicked it open. "Take your bag and go clean yourself up you stupid girl", and with that Lori was shoved out the cubicle as the door was once locked again.

Lori Edwards stared at herself in the mirror. Luckily, there was no-one in the bathroom at the time of the incident, though her Mother had certainly made a show of it. Blood was dripping down onto the white tile floor, splashes of the red liquid trailing from the door to where Lori was standing. The side of her face had a purple bruise, which she was awkwardly covering with her hazel brown hair. Blue eyes had smudged eyeliner round them from the holding back of tears, and her nose had a nice fountain of bright red blood still flowing down. She slipped her rucksack back onto her back; Lori grabbed a couple of hand towels from the dispenser and walked out the bathroom, ignoring the odd stare she got from the woman entering.

Lori found a free plastic seat next to a sandy blonde man, reading a book. She sat down heavily beside him and mopped at her nose, the blood seeping through the flimsy material.

"You alright there, darling?" The man beside her questioned.

"Yeah, I'm okay", she replied, sounding slightly muffled through the tissue.

"Should tilt your head, it'll stop bleeding faster that way".

"Thanks", they sat in silence the next few minutes as Lori's nose bleed finally subsided. Noises came from the bathroom and Lori stared at the ground, feeling embarrassed even though no-one knew it was her Mum in there.

"I'm Sawyer", he supplied, slightly smiling as he said so.

"Lori Edwards", she nodded. "What flight you getting?"

"Oceanic flight 815", he stated proudly. "Yourself?"

"Same actually", she pulled out her ticket as evidence and Sawyer smiled.

"LORI EDWARDS", Cara screeched, stumbling over to the girl who jumped to her feet. "I told you to go clean yourself up, not talk to people you don't know", she hissed, grabbing Lori by the arm. "I'm sorry sir, I hope she didn't bother you".

"No, I spoke to her actually. Her nose was concernin' me…"

"Our Lori's so clumsy…" Cara chimed before turning and pulling the girl off. A piece of paper fluttered down onto the floor in their wake, catching Sawyer's eye. He picked it up and eyed the two, it must be Lori's.

"Might as well be a gentlemen", he murmured, picking up his bag and book and making after their trail. He followed the two women through the thick airport crowds until they vanished from sight. He felt defeated, and decided he could just catch up with her when they went through security.

"You stupid girl", a cry caught his ears followed by a smack. He followed the strange noise and found Cara luring over her daughter who was cowering in the corner. The mother had dragged the girl into a under construction part of the terminal. Lori's nosebleed had been rekindled and a new fresh bruise was staring over the old one on the side of her face.

Unbeknownst to them that Sawyer was watching, Cara took another long gulp of vodka from her bag and sloped down on the wall, falling into a drunken slumber. Sawyer carefully walked over to Lori who looked up at him with heavy breathing.

"I'm sorry you had to see that…" He offered her a hand and pulled her up.

"I found your ticket, you dropped it", Sawyer said simply, and Lori took it from him before slipping it into her pocket and retrieving more tissues to once again stop the nose bleed.

"Thank-you", she stated and walked out, Sawyer quickly following her. "Oh!" She rushed back and picked up her Mother's bag, rummaging through it and pulling out her passport and ticket. Sawyer lingered at the entrance as she came back. "I… I don't-"

"No need to explain yourself, kid", he affirmed.

"Would all passengers for Oceanic Flight 815 please head to the gate", a female voice spoke over the intercom. "Would all passengers for Oceanic Flight 815 please head to the gate".

The two strangers together made their way to the gate.

* * *

Lori looked scared around the plane, if her Mother had made it on… She'd be murdered in the aisle. A man in a suit was sitting beside her, casting her odd glances due to her behaviour, or maybe just because she was on her own…

"Lori", Sawyer appeared from behind, standing in the aisle. "Don't worry kid, I've checked the plane, she's not on here", he smiled when he saw her visibly relax. "I'll see you later, kid", and with that he headed back to his seat.

"Your dad?" The man beside her questioned.

"Erm, no. I just met him in the airport actually", Lori smiled, despite her sore face.

"I'm Jack", he offered her his hand.

"Lori", she smiled once again. Things were finally looking up.

Her Mother hadn't always been that way… Cara's marriage had begun to crack, leading to Cara having an affair with a few men which Lori's Father found out about. He left, walked out without a word. Cara turned to alcohol, lots of it. She'd drink herself stupid, trashing the house leaving Lori to keep things going. The girl had to pay all the bills, buy all the food and other such chores while doing school work. Cara hit her for trying to show her up; she locked her in the bathroom for oversleeping. She punched her for forgetting to put the rubbish out. Everything that was going wrong or went wrong in Cara's life she punished Lori for it.

Lori never said a bad word against her Mother; she didn't even try to stop her beating her or fight back. It wasn't her fault, she had an illness. She was ill. She'd get better.

She'd get better.

Lori kept saying that, even after her Mother dragged them out late one night and crashed the car into a wall, landing them both in hospital.

She hadn't even been drinking that night.

Lori leaned back in the airplane seat, fiddling with her seatbelt. Lori had left her in that desolate area of the airport, she might be awake by now. Suffering a hangover, calling out for Lori in her weak, pathetic voice she always did… Apologising over and over, and crying while Lori cradled her head in her lap.

She always forgave her; it wasn't her Mother's fault. It was Dad's, he didn't keep her satisfied, he hurt her… He didn't show her affection.

"A drink?" The airhostess offered; bring her out of her musings. Lori frowned and shook her head and apologised,

"I don't have any money with me".

"I'll pay for you", Jack pulled out his wallet.

"No, it's okay-"

"I insist. D'you want a coke?" Lori nodded silently and he ordered her coke and himself some vodka and something else Lori didn't catch. Jack leant over and handed over the money, the airhostess fiddled with the pull-down trays and then placed down the drinks before continuing her way down the aisle.

"Thank you", Lori smiled, leaning forward to open the coke; Jack's smile flickered into a frown catching the side of her face.

"That's a nasty bruise". He stated simply. "How'd you get that?"

"Oh, yeah", she ran a hand down it, the pain was dulling. "I got caught by the door at home".

"Meeting someone at the airport, then?"

"Er, yeah, my Dad actually", it wasn't a lie really. She knew he was living in LA, just not exactly… It didn't matter; this Jack guy wasn't going to stalk her round to make sure.

The two sat in silence, and Lori eyed Jack as he slipped the plastic vodka bottle into his pocket.

* * *

Turbulence, Lori HATED turbulence… She just tightened her seatbelt and leant further back into the seat, telling herself it would be over and done with in a few minutes.

Jack, on the other hand, was leaning forward and comforting a woman whose husband had gone to the bathroom. Lori didn't hear much what they were saying; she was just trying to keep herself calm as the noise got louder and louder.

The seatbelt sign pinged on and again, Lori tightened her seatbelt. Suddenly, with no warning, the oxygen masks collapsed down and panic erupted. Everyone lurched forward and grabbed the mask, snapping it over their heads. The noise sped up, getting louder and louder as the plane span into a sort of nose dive.

A loud crack jerked Lori's attention, and it was with a sickening feeling in her stomach she watched the back of the plane literally fall away. Some unfortunate person who hadn't got their seatbelt on in time flew away with them and Lori twisted to face herself forward again, some people hunched themselves forward into the brace position.

The plane made contact with something hard, and things spiralled into darkness…

* * *

Please R&R! If you like... Or if you hate... Or want to shout abuse at me 'cause you're weird... 


	2. Monkey Island

Hey,

thanks for the reviews. Nothing much interesting this time, but it's okay to get the story rolling... Please R&R.

**Disclaimer: **See Chapter One 'cause I'm lazy.

* * *

The first thing that Lori felt was a searing pain in her lower stomach. She tenderly opened an eye and was faced with darkness and the far away sounds of screaming. The plane… It had crashed! Oh god! She was drawn back to the pain and felt her way to the seatbelt, undoing it and something wet coated her hands.

Blood.

The plane had done some spectacular flipping, or so it seemed, and the seatbelt had dug into her stomach from the acrobats. She slowly got to her feet, and felt her way up and out into the aisle, grabbing onto the tops of seats as she saw the hole at the end of the plane.

Crack.

Lori felt sick as she realised she'd just stood on bone, and broken it. No sound came from the owner of the bone that Lori had just snapped, and that urged her forward as unexpectantly her stomach wanted to refuse it's current contents. Lori stumbled further down the aisle, towards the source of the screams. Eventually she fell out the end, landing in soft white sand.

Sand? Oh how lucky, how very lucky. She squinted through the bright sun to see a large vast of ocean before them, they could've landed in there, how did they… Nevermind, she thought, her attention once again situated to her stomach. Blood was soaking through her tee-shirt and she took a few experimental steps forward after she got carefully to her feet.

Where what should have been a beach island paradise, was a scene of wailing bodies and burning fuselage.

"Well", she murmured to herself, remembering the bruises. "Atleast I'll fit in…" She laughed, even though the situation didn't seem to be quite humorous for a man watching her confused.

Lori stumbled up the sandy beach, passing bloodied people and more fuselage before once again, passing out.

* * *

"Lori…Lori…"

"Hey Doc, how'd you know her?"

"I was sitting beside her on the plane", Jack informed the man he'd seen in the aisle. After getting his back stitched by that woman, Kate, he'd come across Lori's limp form in the sand. An impressive wound in her stomach had been successfully closed and now he was trying to rouse the girl.

"Lori… C'mon, wake up for me…" He smiled as he saw ice-blue eyes flutter open and she shot up, rubbing her skull and wrapping an arm protectively round her stomach.

"Oh, we're still here", she replied flatly.

"Yeah, it could be a while till the rescue boats come", Jack got up from his knees and eyed Sawyer apprehensively. "You'll be okay while I go check out everyone else?"

"Uh-huh", the girl shuffled uneasily. She hadn't really had someone so concerned about her well being before…

"I'll stay with her", Sawyer confirmed.

"Okay then", and with that Jack spun round and made his way through the sand.

The two sat in silence, Lori had collapsed quite far up on the beach, and they had a nice view of the plane wreck and the luggage splayed across the white beach. Some people were rummaging through it, trying to salvage their personal belongings so when the boats came they could get right on and get out of this nightmare.

"Don't you want to find your stuff?" Lori questioned uneasily, quite confused about Sawyer's sudden protectiveness over her. Afterall, they'd only met because Lori's head had been bashed into a wall… She was 16, she could handle herself.

"Naw, I might hold on till the boats come", he shrugged.

The boats… Lori's stomach tightened at the prospects, where would they go? Back to Sydney… To her Mother? Oh god, Lori couldn't face that. Her mother beat her for leaving the light on, what would she do if she found out her only child had left her sleeping in a desolate part of the airport and boarded the plane without her…

A small part of Lori hoped that the boats would take their time. Little did she know that was exactly what was going to happen.

* * *

"You hungry, dude?" A plastic wrapped airplane meal was waved infront of her vision.

"Er… Are you sure?"

"Of course, there's enough for all of us", he smiled. He was quite a large man, with long curly brown hair and an aroma that made you want to smile back at him.

"Okay, sure, I'll take one".

"Hmm", he mused. "Our specials tonight are Chicken and Lasagne".

"Ooh, a choice", she laughed. "I'll go for the Lasagne… Thanks", she accepted it and he dropped some plastic cutlery on top.

"Is there no-one with you?" He asked casually, hoping it was an okay question to ask all the sudden.

"No, I was on the plane alone", she shrugged, pulling back the plastic wrap. Sawyer had left to find his suitcase a while ago but she didn't mind. Lori liked being alone with her own thoughts.

"Oh, right; me too… I'm Hurley by the way", he offered her a hand and she shook it, rather quickly.

"Lori", she smiled. Though they seemed apparently stranded on a desert island, due to the previous circumstances Lori couldn't think of a better place to be.

After eating, she got up and stretched off sore muscles, walking in between people trying to sleep or holding their mobile phones high up in the air trying to catch the tiniest part of a signal. She walked past a man who in frustration threw it at the sand, cursed, and then picked it up again to try and different part of the beach.

A large, bright fire was burning, obviously a signal to any planes that might fly over. Many people were helping, throwing stuff in as the fire flickered round. Away from the fire, Jack and a woman Lori didn't know the name of were in discussion. Jack was holding a leaf, folded slightly into the shape of an airplane. He seemed to be re-enacting the crash, to make some sort of sense.

Lori smiled, it seemed okay that someone was as calm as she was.

That was until a noise racketed through the jungle; everyone jumped to their feet and stared round. Some eye's were wide in hope, other's in fear. The noise continued, it almost sound… Mechanical? But… what could cause such a sound?

A pregnant lady asked the inevitable question; "Did anybody hear that sound?"

Hurley got to his feet and moved forward, hesitating before responding, "I think… Uh… Unfortunately all of us did".

The sound made another grand appearance, causing some people to cover their ears to block out the awful sound. Everyone's eyes switched towards the jungle, as tall trees started to sway out of the ordinary.

The group of brave ones moved forward, Jack and the mysterious lady right in front as the sound seemingly crashed through acres of trees in mere seconds. Whatever it was seemed to be retreating. A Brit just infront of Lori voiced everyone's thoughts,

"Terrific".

* * *

Everyone was grouped together now, introduced and making conversation. They had been eying Lori quite strangely, even though a boy younger than her was lurking around too. Maybe it was because she was on her own? Or the bruises… No, she wrote off, everyone was bruised… Sortof…

"It wasn't natural, whatever it was…" A man named Michael trailed off, keeping a strong grip on his son's, Walt's, shoulder. It drew Lori out of her thoughts and she kept her silence, interested in what might be said in response.

"That sound it made", Rose, the lady Jack had been comforting on the plane when the turbulence hit spoke up, "I keep thinking, there was something familiar about it".

"Really? Where are you from?" Shannon, a tall skinny blonde woman who Lori had seen painting her nails, questioned.

"The Bronx".

"It could've been something like monkeys", Charlie, the Brit, voiced up nervously, making Lori smile a little at his suggestion.

"Yeah, I'm sure it was monkeys. It's Monkey Island!" Sawyer drawled, making Charlie nervously retreat.

"You never know, King Kong might have moved here", Lori shrugged, getting odd looks but Charlie shot her a grateful glance. Obviously, she hadn't said much and a reference to King Kong moving wasn't the best opening statement.

"Technically, you know, we don't even know we're on an Island-"

"We're on an Island", Sayid cut Hurley off. Yep, they'd blatantly ignored her. Oh well.

Lori shrugged, once more, seeing Jack and Kate, she'd learnt how name last night, having another hushed conversation.

"Well, does anyone have any ideas at all?" Lori asked, deciding to say something more intelligent this time.

"That's not for you to worry about Lori", Sawyer laughed, ruffling her hair. "You leave that to us".

"I'm 16, I'm not stupid", she huffed, pulling away and crossing her arms. "I just haven't seen any rescue boats on the horizon and was wondering if anyone had any other ideas than just to sit and wait".

The group didn't respond, nobody had a clue.

* * *

"Does anybody have any sunscreen?" Charlie asked, pulling up his sleeves and eyeing the group sitting in the sand.

Shannon leant forward past Lori and picked up her backpack. "Yeah, I do".

"So, I was looking inside the fuselage. It's pretty grim in there. You think we should be doing anything about the B-O-D-Y-S?"

Lori got up at this point, not exactly willing to wait out to see where this conversation might lead. She'd only sat over there since Charlie had gestured her over, probably for her backup against Sawyer, but it was nice to be slighty excepted after her quite stupid remark.

Jack was heading across the sandy plains and she walked over to him as he smiled, seeing her.

"Hey Lori, how's your stomach doing?"

"Uh, it's okay I guess", she slipped her hands in her pockets. "Hasn't really bothered me very much… Are you going somewhere?" She eyed his backpack.

"Yeah, I am. Come over here and I'll explain to all…" She followed him back to the group she'd just retreated from and Jack jumped right in the conversation.

"I'm going to look for the cockpit. See if we can find a transceiver to send out a distress signal. Help out the rescue team", Jack turned to Boone. "You're gonna need to keep an eye on the wounded. If that guy in the suit wakes up, try to keep him calm – Don't let him remove that piece of shrapnel. You understand?"

"What about the guy with the leg? Your tourniquet-"

"Stopped the bleeding. I took it off last night. He'll be all right".

"Yeah, okay. Cool… Uh, good job", Lori smiled at Boone, he liked to understand he had every

clue what was going on.

"Hey, I'm coming with, I wanna help", Charlie announced.

Jack rolled his eyes at this comment, "I don't need anymore help".

"No, I wanna go. I'm not too keen on keeping still", Sawyer sauntered over to the gathering in the sand. He pushed right past Lori after shooting her a wink.

"Yeah, this is genius. Going into the jungle, after that sound last night? The thing that moved those trees? Yeah. This is a great idea".

Kate made her grand appearance and asked the question, "What's going on?"

"Nothing", Jack shrugged, turning to Kate and looking over to the Jungle.

"Well, when they show up to rescue us while you're gone. We're not waiting around", Sawyer taunted, Lori frowned. He'd seemed so nice in the airport…

"Let's go", Jack ignored Sawyer's comment and started walking, barely catching Charlie's comment in response.

"Oh, she's coming too? Excellent".

Lori watched the trio depart into the woods and frowned as a flash of furry white vanished back into the jungle. She shook it off; she was tired, her eyes obviously wanted to play tricks on her.

* * *

Till Chapter Three, where Lori will make a very special new friend... Yay. 

Please review.


	3. Beach Fight

Hullo.

Here's chapter 3... 3 chapters and 2 reviews? Doesn't quite add up does it? Please R&R!

**Disclaimer:** See Chapter One.

* * *

After Jack, Kate and Charlie departed off to commence 'Operation Find Cockpit', the rest of the survivors had situated off into their own little groups. Some headed towards the luggage to see if they could retrieve any other personal belongings or just help new found friends look for their bags.

At the current moment in time, Lori was sitting in the sand; much like the others; and huddling her knees while keeping a stern eye on the horizon to await these rescue boats that everyone was pretty sure were coming. Despite the fact they'd crashed, the island now seemed pretty peaceful not the place of screams of terror it was the previous day. Sure there was still plane fuselage but some survivors had moved a little bit down the coast of the beach so they weren't confronted with half the plane in their vision.

Lori sighed; knowing now would probably be a good time to see if she could find her bag and change or something. She didn't know why she'd put it off this long, maybe the fact that her Mother's was going to be there too? Her heart tightened, she'd forgotten about that bag. Now her Mother was stranded at the airport, either drunk or hung-over with no bag. She rubbed the sweat from her forehead, again rubbing away those thoughts. She was thousands of miles away from her Mother; it wasn't like she was going to jump out the jungle.

Lori carefully looked round just to make sure.

She got to her feet and frowned, wondering how it had got so dark… Oh, she soon found the source as the sky started to blacken and without any other warning, rain lashed down quick as a flash. Survivors ran across the beach to find nearest shelter, Lori obviously being near the trees retreated back into them, looking up at the sky before turning her attention to the others trying to shelter.

Half of dozen had headed to a part of the fuselage, another survivor ran forward but the Korean man seemed to wave him off. He got the message and ran past Michael who was shielding Walt from the downpour with a way too large raincoat.

Shannon and Boone had been heading to the main pain of the fuselage when Hurley started to yell at them; "I'm telling you, you don't wanna go in there! Too many bodies!"

After hearing that they retreated over beside Lori's sheltering spot, and Boone tried to start awkward conversation.

"It's wet".

"Uh, yeah… It is", Lori shrugged, pushing herself further back into the trees as water dripped down through the leaves.

"How old are you anyway, Lori?" Shannon cut in, rolling her eye's at Boone's lame skills at conversation.

"16", she replied. Already getting sick of this conversation, it had happened about 3 times today and always went in the same direction.

"Your parents were on the plane?"

"No, was meant to meet my Dad at the airport", she shrugged, squinting through the rain. "Think we're a bit late".

"Just a bit", Shannon allowed herself a slight smile, the trio not noticing the trees far up in the jungle starting to sway again…

* * *

After the rain subdued, Lori headed with Boone to the luggage splay while Shannon went the other direction muttering about something to do.

More survivors had gathered, and were rummaging through the luggage to find what belonged to the deceased. For some of the survivors luggage had been lost out in the ocean and they'd had to 'borrow' some clothes. Lori looked carefully through the luggage, and after a short while spotted her holdall and her Mother's trolley case. Retrieving both, she lugged them off to the side and clicked open her Mother's case. It had alcohol in it and lots of it. To be honest she had more of the alcohol than clothes. Typical of her… Lori threw out a few blouses and trousers to give to whoever needed them and shut the case, hoping no-one would ask for it. She didn't need them finding out she'd ditched her Mother at the airport…

Lori zipped open her case, grabbed some fresh clothes and asked Boone to make sure no-one rummaged through her stuff when she went to get changed. He agreed, eyeing Shannon from a distance who was sunbathing of all things. He'd gone over to her a few moments before but he'd come back in a slight huff.

Eyeing some secluded trees, Lori headed up that way and quickly got changed; not wanting to stay in the jungle for too long after the noises that had erupted from it the previous night.

"No, don't do this", caught Lori's hearing and curiosity over took her. She walked forward towards the sound as the conversation got louder. "You listen to me, I mean what I say. You understand that?" A pause. "What's this?"

"I just found 'em", she recognised Walt's voice and frowned. What could he have found?

Hearing them retreat back to the beach, Lori soon followed and went back to her cases, deciding to just to throw the bloodied ones into her Mother's case. They went back to sorting, not really speaking very much. A new man came to stand over Lori, but she didn't care to look up.

"Hi there", he stated, obviously wanting her attention. She turned round and stood up, faced with an old looking sort of man that she remembered had sat in the rain earlier, quite enjoying it too. "I'm John Locke, call me Locke though".

"Lori", she nodded; what did he want?

"I was wondering if I could speak with you… Can we take a walk?"

Hundreds of scenarios flashed in Lori's mind at that suggestion. He could just kill her in the jungle and no-one would see her again… She shrugged… He looked nice enough; surely he just wanted company or something?

"Uh, sure, I guess. Boone, can you?"

"Yeah, I'll watch them for you, go ahead", he smiled, before going back through broken cases trying to find his own.

Locke made a line straight to where the tide was coming in, washing up in the shore. He took his shoes off quickly, and let the water wash round his feet, like it was a completely new sensation.

"So, uh, what did you want to talk about?"

"You're alone, aren't you?"

"Yeah…"

"There was no-one on the plane with you".

"Uh-huh, I'm meeting my Dad at the airport", the lie was getting easier everytime she said it. "Well, I was meant too".

"Lori, I saw your Mother check in at the airport too. With you, she had luggage, which you've got over there".

Lori froze at that, what? How did he… Why did he… What?

"I think you're mistaken, Locke", she tried to keep the nervousness out of her voice. God, why did she sound so guilty? She hadn't done anything that wrong! It was a mistake, a simple and easy mistake…

"No, I remember quite clearly that she checked in. What happened to her? Was she on the plane?"

"…No", Lori shuffled her feet.

"Then, where is she?"

"Look, I don't have to tell you this!" She retaliated, then covering her mouth in shock. She hadn't snapped at someone like that before, ever. "I'm sorry, Locke. I'm so sorry, I just-"

"No, you're perfectly right, you don't have to tell me. But, I thought since you'd been looking guilty and nervous ever since we arrived here, it might be nice to get it off your chest".

Lori frowned, kicking at the sand. Sawyer knew what happened… But he hadn't really spoken to her since last night. Fair enough she thought, so he retrieved her ticket and looked out for her on the plane; well, so had Jack but it didn't mean they had a life long friendship.

"Lori?"

She slumped down in the sand, a little further up from the incoming tide and Locke stepped back too and joined her.

"It was her own fault", she muttered. "She drank too much and passed out at the airport".

"Why didn't you stay with her?"

"It wasn't out in the terminal, it was in the under construction bit-"

"What were you doing in there?"

Lori hesitated at this part. She'd never actually come to say it out loud to anyone, not even her friends… They just thought she was very badly clumsy…

Locke saw the girl's discomfort and decided to enquire what he thought, "Is it something to do with those bruises?"

She nodded numbly, still scared to admit it. "She… We were in the terminal, and she went into the bathroom. I waited for her but she was taking ages… So, I went inside and called for her… She was drunk already and pulled me into the cubicle, bashed my head against the wall and gave me a nose bleed…" Lori looked out to the ocean and continued with the rest of the story, telling of her encounter with Sawyer and the taking of her Mother's passport and ticket.

"So, you're not lying when you say you had no-one on the plane with you".

"Unless she magically managed to sneak on and then keep herself hidden all this time… I'm not", she shrugged.

"Ah and-"

"GONNA KILL YOU – LET HIM GO! – SICK OF… - DON'T!"

The sounds of a fight broke Locke's sentence and he and Lori hurried over to the crowd of twenty huddled round Sawyer and Sayid who were in the middle of it. Jack, Kate and Charlie emerged from out the jungle, all looking worse for wear.

"What?" Kate stared, dumbfounded as Jack threw off his backpack and enetered the fight, immediately pulling the two men apart.

"All right, enough!" Jack ordered.

"I've had enough of this guy! You accuse me of being a criminal! What next? I suppose you think I am responsible for the crash!" Sayid argued.

"You've had enough of me! If the shoe fits, buddy! Look around! They all know it's you! I'm just the only one SAYING it!" Sawyer yelled right back.

"HEY!" Jack shouted the loudest, drawing back attention to himself. "What the hell?"

"My boy found these in the jungle", and with that Michael held up a pair of handcuffs. Ah, Lori mused, so that's what Walt had found…

Sawyer lured right into Sayid's face. "And this guy was in the back row of business class the whole flight. Never got up. Hands folded under his blanket. And for some crazy reason – I'm just pointing this out – The guy I saw next to him didn't make it. Do the math", Sawyer was nose to nose to him now. "You're the prisoner, muchacho".

"Thank you for observing my behavior so very carefully"

"You think I didn't see them pull you out of line before we boarded?"

"If you do not take your finger out my face…"

"Oh please – Bring it".

"STOP!" Kate yelled, everyone's attention now drawn to her. "We actually DO have bigger problems than this", and with that she pulled out a funny looking thing from Jack's discarded pack. "We found the transceiver. But it's not working. Can anybody help?"

Sayid stepped forward, glaring at Sawyer. "Yes, I might be able to".

"Oh yeah, good! This guy! Perfect! Let's trust him--"

"Hey—We're all in this together, man. Let's try to treat each other with", Hurley tried to reason.

"Shut up, lardo".

"Hey! Give it a break". Jack ordered.

"Whatever you say, Doc, you're the hero", and with that Sawyer stormed off, walking straight into Jack.

"You found the cockpit? Were there any survivors?" Boone finally questioned.

Eyes flickered between the trio before Jack said simply, "No".

Sayid was looking over the transceiver before speaking up, "It's dual-band. Military spec. Broadcasts full-range, far as I can tell. Chances are the battery is good, but the radio… It is dead".

"Can you get it to work?" Lori questioned, it was on everyone's mind. Sayid stared at the teenager, avoiding all the other pressured gazes before turning to Jack.

"I need some time".

A few minutes after that discussion, Lori left and went back to her luggage, sitting on top of her Mother's case, sighing and burying her head in her hands. What was with that Sawyer? He'd seemed so nice in the airport too her…

"So, what's with all the alcohol?"

* * *

Ooh, a cliffhanger. Sortof. It will get more interesting soon, I promise! I'm doing quite well, a chapter per day, so yes, please review if you read it and tell me what you think. 


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